Engine-governor.



No. 738,514?. MTENTEDfsEPT.a,1903L c. P. KNOTHE. y ENGINE GOVERNOR.l

APPLICATION :FILED AUG. 6., 1902.

' no MODEL.

\ ll Y I l i w/TNESSES 7 //IA Tron/VE Ys UNITED STATES latented September 8, 1903.

CHARLES F. KNOTHE, OF FORT WAYNE, INDIANA.

ENGINE-GOVERNOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 738,547, dated September 8, 1903.

i Application inea August 6, 1902.

T0 all whom t may concern: l

Be it known that I, CHARLES F. KNoTHE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Fort Vayne, in the county of Allen, in the State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Engine-Governors; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,which form part of this specification.

My invention relates to improvements in steam-engine governors.

It is well known that in centrifugal or ball governors for steam-engines the valve-gear or operating mechanism is actuated by the centrifugal force of the governor itself instead of by the power of the engine, whereby correspondingly large and expensive governors are required on large engines to overcome the heavy pull of the valve mechanism, and the prompt and eicient action of' the governor is more or less interfered with by the reaction of the valve mechanismunder varying loads.

The object of my present invention is to provide a cheap, simple, and efficient steamengine governor in which the valve-gear is operated by the power of the engine and the governor is entirely relieved of that duty, whereby the centrifugal action of the governor is relieved from all reaction by thei irregular action of the gear mechanism, the governor-ball will be at exactly the same relative position whether the engine is at full load or at no load, thus insuring the same speed regardless of load, much less vertical movement of the governor is required, and a much smaller and more economical governor can be employed.

My invention consists of a common form and arrangement of governor-balls s uspended from a vertical shaft upon toggle-arms and adapted to swing outward by centrifugal force when the'shaft is rotated and whose circle of revolution widens in the usual manner as the speed of the engine increases, a sleeve loosely mounted on said shaft but locked against rotation thereon and pivotally connected with said balls, a pair of bevelgears in mesh with a bevel-gear upon the ad- Serial No. 1181575. (No model.)

jacent end of the valve-gear shaft, and clutch ingly engage said bevel-gears one at a time.

The principal novel feature of my invention resides in the means for operating the valve mechanism.

In the accompanying drawings, in which similar reference-nu merals indicate like parts throughout the several views, Figure 1 is a View in elevation, partly in vertical section and partly broken away, of the preferred form of my invention, showing the relative arrangement of all the operative parts. Fig. 2 is a similar view of a modified form of the same.

Referring now particularly to Fig. l, the governor-shaft l, of proper dimensions, has its lower end rotatably mounted in suitable bearings and is driven from the engine in any proper manner and is longitudinally slotted to rigidly admit and contain the spline 2. To the upper end of the shaft 1 are pivoted the upper ends of the toggle-arms 3, carrying upon their lower ends the balls 4.

The arms 3 are pivotally connected to the collar 5 by means of the toggle-arms 6 in the usual manner, and the collar 5 carries a proper Weight 7,preferablyintegral,as shown, and centrally apertured to loosely admit the governor-shaft 1.

From the collar 5 is rigidly suspended the sleeve 8, preferably by a screw-threaded connection, and is slidably mounted on said shaft,

fin cooperative relation with the said sleeve 8 by connecting them therewith by means of a double clutch, as shown in Fig. 1, as follows:

A two-part bracket, whose upper section 12 and lower section 13 are identical in construction and which are detachably united by `proper bolts 14, is loosely mounted on the sleeve 8 and is provided upon its inner, upper, and lower faces with the bosses 15, in-

closing the said sleeve, and each havin g on its outer end an annular shoulder 1G. On these bosses 15 are rotatably mounted thegears 10 and 11, respectively, and are secured in position thereon by means of a Washer' 17 and an internally-screw-threaded collar 18. Each of these gear-wheels 10 and 11 is provided too upon its inner face with a V-shaped annular groove 19.

The gears 10 and 11 are so arranged as to normally engage a meshing-gear 20, rigidly fixed upon the inner or adjacent end of the valve-gear-operating shaft 21. In the space between the said gears 10 and 11 is arranged a double-faced clutch 22, cylindrical in form and provided upon its opposite ends with peripheral extensions 23, preferably of greater diameter than the said clutch, as shown, and each having an outwardly-beveled edge adapted to register with its corresponding groove 19. This clutch 22 is rigidly fixed upon the said sleeve 8 by proper set-screws 24 or other proper manner. In use one end or the other of the said clutch is always in holding engagement with its companion gear,excepting when the engine is at the properspeed and the space between the end not in engagement and its companion gear is only about one-hundredth part of an inch, but enough to perfectly clear the same.

In the modified form shown in Fig. 2 the clutch 22 and the said two-part bracket are both omitted, and instead of gear-wheels a beveled friction-gearing is employed.

The friction-wheels 10' and 11' are rigidly mounted on the sleeve S in the same copertive relation with the bevel friction-wheel 20' as that described above as existing between the gears 10 and 11 and the meshinggear 20.

In Fig. 2 the sleeve 8 has its opposite ends reduced in diameter, as shown, leaving an annular shoulder at 25, against which the wheels 10 and 11, respectively, rest. The wheels are each keyed in position by the key or splines 2G and are secured in position by the nuts 27 on the screw-threaded ends of the sleeve 8.

The valve-gear shaft 21, carrying upon its inner end the gear 20', is supported in a proper bearing 28 on a suitable bracket 29.

The operation of my improvement thus described is obvious and brieiiy stated is as follows: Any acceleration of speed of rotation of the shaft 1 above a certain predetermined rate will cause the balls 4, through centrifugal action,to spread apart, and thus through the medium of the arms 6 the sleeve 8 will be caused to move upwardly along the shaft 1. The double-faced clutch 22 will thereby be carried upwardly and the upper end thereof caused to engage the gear-wheel 10 in the groove 19 of the latter, whereupon said gear- Wheel will rotate with the shaft l, and being in engagementwith the wheel 20 said wheel 10 will operate the valve-gear shaft 2l to lessen the supply of steam to the engine. When the latter condition arises, the speed will be reduced, and consequently the balls 4 will become loweredfand move toward each other, thus causing vthe sleeve 8 to move downwardly uponr the shaft 1 and releasing the clutch 22 from engagement with the gearwheel 10. Should the speed of the engine fall below the normal, the balls 4 will move toward each other in an obvious manner, thereby forcingthe lower end of the clutch 22 into engagement with the gear-wheel 11, whereupon the latter is rotated by the shaft 1 and in turn transmits rotation to the shaft 21 to open the supply of steam and permit a greater flow to the engine to increase its speed.

The operation of the modied form shown in Fig. 2 is the same, excepting the omission of the clutch, which is unnecessary when the gears 10' and 11 are at all times rigidly fixed on said sleeve 8. As the valve-gear-operating shaft 21 'is driven by the engine and the governor merelyr actuates the vertically-slidable sleeve through the space of one-hundredth of an inch under the greatest variations ofspeed it is obvious that the centrifugal power of the governor is relieved from all reaction of the valve-gear mechanism, and that the same speed will uniformly be maintained regardless of load. A much less vertical movement than usual is required in my invention, and a smaller and less expensive governor can be employed for large and powerful engines.

I-Iaving thus described my invention, what I desire to secure by Letters Patent is- In a speed-governor, the combination with a rotatable shaft, of a bracket or frame arranged thereon and provided at its top and bottom with inwardly projecting bosses through which saidgshaft passes, said bosses being provided withannnlar shoulders, flyballs carried by said shaft, a sleeve also carried by said shaftand sli-dable thereon, means for pivotally connecting said balls with said sleeve, whereby the latter is caused to move on said shaft under the inliuence of the movement of said balls, said sleeve extending through the ltop of saidbracket or frame to a point between the bosses thereof, gearwheels rotatably mounted on said bosses and working against the shoulders thereof, said wheels being provided at their inner faces with annular grooves, a double-faced clutch surrounding said sleeve and carried thereby, said clutch being arranged between said gearwheels and having its end enlarged to form peripheral extensions, the latter registering with and adapted to enter the annular grooves of the gear-wheels to engage the clutch therewith, a valve gear -operating shaft passing through said bracket or frame, and a gearwheel carried by said shaft and meshing with the aforesaid gear-wheels,wherebysaid valvegear-operating shaft is actuated in accordance with the varying speed of the engine.

Signed by me at Fort Wayne, Allen county, State of Indiana, this 30th day of July, A. D. 1902.

CHARLES F. KNOTI'IE.

Witnesses:

ADELAIDE KnARNs, AUGUSTA VIBERG.

IOO 

